Over the course of the last two decades, Americans—especially
younger adults—went on a credit card-enabled binge, accumulating
billions in consumer debt. For example, in January 1988, American
consumers had nearly $170 billion in revolving debt.

Jeffrey Dew is a faculty fellow at the National Marriage Project and
an assistant professor of Family, Consumer, and Human Development at
Utah State University. He can be reached at jeff.dew@usu.edu.

By December 2008, U.S. consumers had amassed a staggering $988 billion
in revolving debt – just short of $1 trillion.[1] The financial consequences of this massive
increase in consumer debt have been readily apparent in the
nation’s recent recession. But new research on marriage and
money—which has focused on the influence that debt, assets,
spending patterns, and materialism have on marriages—suggests
that our recent spending spree has also been important for the quality
and stability of marriages in the United States.

This research indicates that consumer debt (e.g., credit card debt)
plays a powerful role in eroding the quality of married life. Consumer
debt fuels a sense of financial unease among couples, and increases
the likelihood that they will fight over money matters; moreover, this
financial unease casts a pall over marriages in general, raising the
likelihood that couples will argue over issues other than money and
decreasing the time they spend with one another. For instance, as
Figure 1 indicates, newlywed couples who take on substantial consumer
debt become less happy in their marriages over time. By contrast,
newlywed couples who paid off any consumer debt they brought into
their marriage or acquired early in their marriage had lower declines
in their marital quality over time.[2]

Consumer debt is also an equal-opportunity marriage destroyer. It does
not matter if couples are rich or poor, working class or middle class.
If they accrue substantial debt, it puts a strain on their marriage.

Assets, on the other hand, sweeten and solidify the ties between
spouses. Assets minimize any sense of financial unease that couples
feel, with the result that they experience less conflict.[3]

Assets also decrease the likelihood of divorce. Interestingly, the
protective power of assets only works for wives, and for two reasons.
First, wives with more marital assets are happier in their marriages
and, as a consequence, are less likely to seek a divorce. Second,
assets make wives more reluctant to pursue a divorce because they
realize that their standard of living would fall markedly after a
divorce.[4] For example, as Figure 2
shows, couples with no assets at the beginning of a 36 month period
were 70 percent more likely to divorce than couples with $10,000 in
assets.

Perceptions of how well one’s spouse handles money also play a
role in shaping the quality and stability of family life in the U.S.
When individuals feel that their spouse does not handle money well,
they report lower levels of marital happiness.[5] They are also more likely to head for
divorce court. In fact, in one study, feeling that one’s spouse
spent money foolishly increased the likelihood of divorce 45 percent
for both men and women. Only extramarital affairs and alcohol/drug
abuse were stronger predictors of divorce.[6]

Materialistic spouses are also more likely to suffer from marital
problems. Some spouses base much of their happiness and self-worth on
the material possessions they accumulate. This materialistic
orientation has implications for their marriages. Materialistic
individuals report more financial problems in their marriage and more
marital conflict, whether they are rich, poor, or middle-class. For
these husbands and wives, it would seem that they never have enough
money.[7]

More generally, conflict over money matters is one of the most
important problems in contemporary married life. Compared with
disagreements over other topics, financial disagreements last longer,
are more salient to couples, and generate more negative conflict
tactics, such as yelling or hitting, especially among husbands.
Perhaps because they are socialized to be providers, men seem to take
financial conflict particularly hard.[8] Not surprisingly, new research that I have
done indicates that conflict over money matters predicts divorce
better than other types of disagreement.[9] For example, for husbands, financial
disagreements were the only type of common disagreement that predicted
whether they would divorce. For wives, both financial and sexual
disagreements predicted divorce, but financial disagreements were a
much better predictor. As Figure 3 indicates, couples who reported
disagreeing about finances once a week were over 30 percent more
likely to divorce over time than couples who reported disagreeing
about finances a few times per month.

Clearly, money matters play a crucial role in shaping the quality and
stability of married life in the U.S. Moreover, married couples
don’t have to be facing poverty or a job loss for financial
issues to impact their marriage. Rather, decisions like whether to
make a major purchase using consumer credit or how much of a paycheck
to put into savings can have substantial consequences for the
short-term and long-term health of a marriage. In particular, couples
who are wise enough to steer clear of materialism and consumer debt
are much more likely to enjoy connubial bliss.

Accordingly, insofar as the current recession has encouraged Americans
to shed consumer debt and acquire assets, it may be fostering an ethic
of thrift that is redounding to the benefit of married couples. That
is, couples who have turned away from spending money they do not have
and towards saving money around which they can build a shared future
together appear well-positioned to enjoy more than a healthy bank
account.

Lauren M. Papp, E. Mark
Cummings, and Marcie C. Goeke-Morey, “For richer, for poorer:
Money as a topic of marital conflict in the home.” Family
Relations 58 (2009), 91-103. Jeffrey P. Dew and John Dakin,
“Financial issues and marital conflict intensity.” Paper
presented at the annual conference of the American Council of Consumer
Interests (July 2009). Milwaukee, WI.

Amato and Rogers (1997).
Jeffrey P. Dew, “Financial issues as predictors of
divorce.” Paper presented at the annual conference of the
National Council on Family Relations (November 2009). San Francisco,
CA.